![]() Press releases are short summaries of the scientific studies, designed to convey the impact and potential of the findings and to use plain language to explain the technical details found in the journal article itself. Press releases from scientific journals, institutions, companies and elsewhere can help point reporters to the highlights. “Lost in all of this is the consumer, the reader, the patient at the end of this food chain who doesn’t know how the sausage is made, and if he or she could see it would see what an ugly mess it is.”Įvery day, journalists (and bloggers) have to sift through mountains of scientific research to find the best work to report on. “The anecdotes pile up about this contaminated food chain, as it were, of spin or imbalanced incomplete messages in papers, which then leads to spin and imbalanced incomplete messages in news releases, and then it leads to really inadequate news stories,” says veteran health care journalist Gary Schwitzer, publisher of, a watchdog site that reviews health news. But this doesn’t mean that the media can pass blame. The results reinforce that hype creep occurs at all levels of the news chain - beginning with the scientists themselves, the organizations wishing to promote the work and the media outlets that report on it. But a new analysis shows that some exaggerations slip in at the institution level, in the press releases that universities and organizations send to journalists about new scientific findings. It’s easy to point fingers and blame journalists, media-hungry fame seekers or the endlessly hungry news cycle. More importantly, an over-hyped finding, especially in areas related to human health, could mislead readers and patients, some of whom may end up changing their behavior based on unfounded information. A lab study in rats ending up in the paper with the claim that more bacon jerky could prevent cancer can be embarrassing at best. ![]() ![]() But there’s also the chance that the news media will hype the scientist’s findings. The attention can be heady and show the importance of a researcher’s findings. Many scientists greet the prospect of media coverage with a combination of excitement and trepidation. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |